Ukraine ready to block Crimean bridge

Saturday, March 24, 2018 - 16:22

The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People based in Ukraine intends to "do everything" to impede the movement of traffic along the Crimean bridge, said one of the leaders of the organization, the initiator of the peninsula's blockade Lenur Islyamov.

In particular, he suggested taking notes about all the vehicles passing through the bridge, and imposing sanctions against people who thus enter the territory of the Crimea. According to him, the same restrictive measures should be applied to them, as to the artists visiting the peninsula.

"To note all people. By name. And then to impose sanctions wherever they move," Islyamov said in an interview with the Ukrainian publication Obozrevatel.

Asked by the journalist whether the organization would physically impede the movement, he noted that he would consider this option if the sanctions did not yield any result.

"First, we will not interfere, we will wait and see how the sanctions will work, and if necessary, we will prepare for the next steps," Islyamov promised.

He did not specify what "steps" he was talking about, but he assured that "non-violent methods of struggle" would be used to block the bridge.

In Russia, Islyamov is accused in the case of sabotage in the Crimea on November 22, 2015, when all four power lines coming from Ukraine to the peninsula were left without electricity due to undermining of the poles. In addition, Islyamov became a figurant of another criminal case - the creation of an armed battalion in the south of Ukraine near the Crimean borders.